Wandering Mind

So what does a yogi do when he can’t practice due to the moon? Well, this one FINALLY read the Bhagavad Gita. I’ve been trying for weeks just to get through the introduction but it was just so wordy and I had to reference the text, then the translator’s notes and it was slow and boring. So last night I decide to ignore the intro and just read the Gita. It was much easier to read than the intro and I really enjoyed it. Read about half last night and finished this morning. Most of it made sense. I had to reference the translator’s notes some but not always. I flipped through the intro after reading the Gita and it makes a lot more sense, too. I’m sure I missed a lot of the detailed meaning and symbolism and I plan on going back through it to break it down more. I agreed with some (most, actually) but definitely not all and I know I put my own philosophic spin on some of that which I wasn’t quite sure of. I often read things like this with the idea of applying or not applying the concepts to myself, vs. just reading it for the analytical value of the piece. I made a lot of marks and margin notes and I think I may do a sub-blog of this or maybe of Svadhyaya in general as I go through different texts and hopefully I can get some comments/dialogue going. I think on my trip to Buffalo this weekend I’m going to listen to Richard Freeman’s section of the Yoga Matrix about the Bhagavad Gita which I’m sure will make it a bit clearer as well. I have to admit, too, that I felt a nice sense of peace as I was reading it and since I have finished it.

The idea of skipping practice for moon days is new to me. Not coming from a Mysore style background it wasn’t taught/practiced. The longer I practice and the more connections I make to other ashtangis it feels more natural. The only explanation of it that I have seen so far is Tim Miller’s. It makes sense, I’m curious if there’s more to it than that.

Although my upstairs neighbors can be loud and thumpy they do create some fun flashbacks to my childhood. There are two girls with a younger brother who they see as their own live doll. (kinda how I grew up) Last week the oldest daughter had the little boy (5 years old) dressed in drag, complete with make-up, earrings, and a stuffed halter-top. And of course the camera came out. I could feel for the kid. It’s nice to get the attention from your siblings but in 15 years when that picture comes back out… I was looking through some pictures of my childhood a few years ago when I ran across one that had my sisters (probably around 7 & 8) playing house with these two other little girls. I asked who the two other little girls were and one was a friend of the family that I remembered after her name was mentioned, the other little girl was… me.

This morning after the parents left for work the eldest daughter was trying to find something to do with a can of silly string she must have recently acquired. Sprayed a little here and there, a little in a tree off the balcony… then she goes back inside, comes out with her little brother and starts to decorate him with the silly string. That was kind of funny. But what was funnier was when I hear the little boy proclaim with glee, “Mom’s Home!” as the mom’s SUV pulled into the driveway, obviously earlier than expected because the daughter’s response was “Oh, Shit!” and I hear the stomping up above as she scramble around to clean up her mess and her little brother.